Senators in the Netherlands approved a new law earlier this week. The law makes all Dutch adults potential organ donors automatically unless they purposefully opt out—meaning they choose the option not to donate. Opt-out plans exist already in Austria, Spain, Wales, and France, which put a similar law into effect in January.
The opt-out law narrowly passed in the upper house of the Dutch parliament. The lower house last year passed the legislation with a one-vote majority. The law’s drafter, Pia Dijkstra, says that under the new system—which is similar to donation laws in Belgium and Spain—every person over 18 who is not yet registered as a donor will receive a letter asking if they want to donate their organs after death. “They will be able to reply: yes, no, my next of kin will decide, or a specific person will decide,” Dijkstra says. Those who do not respond to the first letter or to a second letter six weeks later, will automatically be considered organ donors. However, residents may change their status at any time.
The Dutch Kidney Foundation calls the vote “a real breakthrough for patients on waiting lists.” Officials say that research in other countries with similar systems shows an increase in registrations of organ donors. The foundation’s director, Tom Oostrom, says the new law means “hundreds of patients will get back their lives and freedom.”
The United States—where one person goes on the transplant waiting list every ten minutes—has an opt-in system.
Some Christians consider organ donation the highest form of “loving your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13,9, James 2:8) Do you agree? Do you think organ donation should be automatic? Why or why not?
(AP Photo: Doctors perform surgery to remove a kidney from a donor.)
